Legs 0 Head 1

Today is my second proper long run and was planned to be 2 hours 30. Due to various issues this week;
Asthma playing up
Sore knee after wearing heels
Ongoing sore glute
Bad planning

this is the only run so far since last weeks long run (unless you call 5-10 mins of warm-up jogging with clients). So, it was not going to be easy to get back to it and my head was struggling to get round the idea plus as I walked home from the cinema last night I managed to blister a toe!

Card/protein brekkie eaten I taped up my toe to cover and cushion the blister and set off with 2 hours 30 in mind and new rucksack on back. I've now discovered that although it is comfortable it may chafe my neck after a few hours if I don't have a collar or buff around my neck but at least it's good to know that early on.

As I ran/walked I started thinking of my kit list and it's great to run with the pack on but I've got to try the full kit in it to not just a drink and a waterproof. So that's food bars, map, phone, waterproof, drinks, emergency blanket, bivvy bag.......then my mind wandered as it does when I'm running.....to anything and everything.

I'm beginning to get a bit bored just running around Bristol for these long ones so may have to resort to getting Hubby to drop me off or pick me up from somewhere soon - I will encourage with the offer of coffee and cake or lunch at a pub of course! Or maybe I need to get my mp3 player stuffed in the bag.

At about 1 hour 30 it began to rain slightly and as I was approaching a bridge that I could shelter under I used that cover to strip off my t-shirt and replace it with my waterproof - if you don't take off the shirt you'll just fry in the waterproof shell even if it breathes. I had hummed and harred about this but glad I made the choice to stick on the 'boil in the bag' jacket afterall as within 2 minutes the light rain began rather large hailstones!

Getting near the 2 hour mark my legs felt completely mashed - far more than they would usually do at this stage in a race and I think my mind was wandering a little too much. However, the head talked to the legs and the legs muttered something about being near home and how we could be there in 5 mins but whilst the legs mithered on about pain the head 'accidentally' missed the turn and added another block or two on and 10 more mins!

A grand total of 12.35 miles in 2:20 and some seconds. Believe it or not faster than last week!

And so it (really) starts...

OK, so I've been training since the start of the year and thinking about this even longer but I needed to get two early holidays out of the way before really feeling that training had started and Friday was the day......

I've been carrying a niggling glute injury for weeks and it's not really improved during my time away so was a bit worried about running at all and making it worse. Started with little short run of 3 miles on Friday which felt comfortable and quick given the speed I plan to run Coast to Coast at. Today was my 2 hour run/walk and well it did not feel too bad afterall.

The glute aches with every step but stayed in one piece for the whole session (10 mins run/2 mins walk for 2 hours), the new lightweight rucksack that I plan to complete the challenge with was comfortable and carried gels, phone, waterproof, bottles well. Now I've refuelled - starting with chocolate milk (great post run recovery drink) and bathed I need to stretch otherwise tomorrow I'll not make it to my early client!